The Role of Airports in the Transport Chain

This paper describes how economists have belatedly addressed the economics of airports in recent years. Previously, airports were somewhat neglected, as both a relatively minor part of government and a relatively unimportant part of the air transport journey. The public view of the glamour of air travel reflected on the airlines, management and flight crews alike, but not on airports. The heads of state airlines became national figures in the media as did their opponents in the private sector. By contract, airport chief executives never attained such media profits. Airports have now become major commercial enterprises. They are considered to be instruments of regional and national economic growth in a globalized economy and multimodal nodes. The paper describes how airports in the transport chain are multimodal interchange nodes between: (1) airlines and airport; (2) passengers, airlines, and airports; (3) passenger ground transport, airlines and airports including private cars, taxis, car hire, bus and train; and (4) freight, airlines and airports.